Dinner as Design: What We Learned Bringing The Esas Mesas Table to Lif

Dinner Series

Dinner as Design: What We Learned Bringing The Esas Mesas Table to Life

When we dreamt up Esas Mesas, it was always about more than tableware. It was about the act of gathering—how a table can become a stage for connection, craft, and storytelling. Earlier this summer, we had the joy of bringing this vision to life with a very special dinner, hosted at Casa Ysasi in Los Angeles.

The Setting: Casa Ysasi

Casa Ysasi is a studio and gallery founded by brothers Iñigo and Pato Ysasi. At its heart is hermandad—brotherhood—rooted in family, craft, and the desire to live with meaningful objects. Their space is split into two halves: one side a gallery, the other a working studio and showroom. It’s a place where process and presentation are in constant dialogue.

For our dinner, the warm glow of their Hermandad Light became a centerpiece. Crafted from rich walnut and yellow amate paper (handmade from the bark of the jonote tree), the light embraces repetition as meditation. With its adjustable dimmer, it transformed the studio into something intimate and timeless.

The Collaborators

We were lucky to partner with some of Los Angeles’ most inspiring creatives:

Chainsaw: Chef Karla Subero Pittol brought her signature warmth and precision, creating a pop-up kitchen al fresco and executing under minimal lighting with ease. Every dish felt like both art and nourishment.
Madre Mezcal: Artisanal agave spirits crafted by five families in Oaxaca and Jalisco grounded the evening in heritage.
Fiky Fiky Wines: Their natural wines, shaped by California’s shifting climate, added vibrancy and surprise to the pairings.
MILA by Camilla Vergani: Dramatic, whimsical floral arrangements filled the space—oversized blooms, playful colors, and textures that invited curiosity and wonder.

The Table

Of course, the star for us was the table itself. We layered the space with Esas Mesas pieces:

Our hand-stitched Otomi tablecloth, alive with embroidered motifs.
Etched glasses from San Miguel de Allende, each one carved by hand, glinting under candlelight.
Tall glass vases from our Condesa Collection that we filled with dramatic floral arrangements
Our colorful, handblown mezcal shot glass for everyone to sip and enjoy the Madre Mezcal
Casa Viviana Candles made by a women-led workshop in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, each piece is hand poured and the details are exquisite

The table became not just a surface, but a canvas—each detail contributing to a larger composition.

The Gathering

Beyond the beauty of objects, what we loved most was the act of bringing people together. Friends old and new, artists and entrepreneurs, designers and dreamers—all seated around one long table. We shared food and celebrated the craft of making and living intentionally.